``From watching film and playing these two games, I`ve seen four teams

(Vikings, Bears, Packers, Eagles). We would end up in fourth place in that particular grouping, and the Bears` replacement team would be the best.``

Burns, echoing management`s stance, still assumes the games played by replacements will be counted in the final standings.

At least a couple of his players wouldn`t mind leaving no record to mark their place in this history-making season.

``I`d like to see them start up where they left off,`` said defensive end Stefford Mays, an eight-year veteran of the real NFL before being cut by the St. Louis Cardinals.

``I would feel the same way if we won.``

``If these games don`t count, it would be fine,`` said cornerback Rufus Bess, a nine-year veteran who was called back after being cut by the Vikings in training camp.

``The other guys (striking players) are probably disappointed about losing two games, but we aren`t playing for the other guys. We`re playing for the Vikings team.``

Vikings quarterback Tony Adams, 37, who was playing in a touch football league when the strike began, didn`t need to face the other guys to learn what the Bears often do to quarterbacks.

Adams was sacked eight times before leaving with a sore knee after the Vikings` next-to-last possession of the game.

His replacement, Larry Miller, was sacked once, giving the replacement Bears 20 in two games.

``It`s all the same when you get hit,`` Adams said. ``I don`t ask who it is.``

It has been six years since Adams had been hit.

Before this season, he had last played in the Canadian Football League in 1981.

``Even if you`re 25, if you get hit that many times, you feel like you`re 45,`` said Adams, a Kansas City businessman.

Adams nevertheless completed 15 of 29 passes for 178 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. James Brim, a rookie from Wake Forest who had lasted until the Vikings` final training camp cut, caught 8 for 89 yards and the TD. Mays, who has seen playing time at Soldier Field several times in the past, was discomfited by what was missing from the picture Sunday.

``You don`t see Walter (Payton) out there, and you wonder what`s going on,`` Mays said. ``It made things a little cloudy for me.

``You`ve got to shake yourself a little bit and gather your thoughts to figure what is happening.``

Not even the decent-size crowd (by strike standards), the peaceable atmosphere at the striking Bears` rally outside the stadium and the victory could make Michael McCaskey happy about Sunday`s scenario.

``It`s a bittersweet day, and that is only because we won,`` said the Bears` president. ``If we lost, it would be an absolutely terrible day.``

From a vantage point at the skybox level, McCaskey watched some of the pregame rally and autograph session taking place on the west side of Soldier Field.

It had none of the ugly overtones, with nonfootball unionists physically and verbally abusing fans, that occurred when the Munsters of the Midway played their first game last week in Philadelphia.

``I`m relieved it was a peaceful demonstration, and that all concerned seemed to want to have it that way,`` McCaskey said. ``It talks to the strength of character and good common sense of our players.

``The (striking) players handled themselves with grace under pressure, which is awfully tough to do.``

Even before he knew the exact size of the crowd (32,113), McCaskey was certain Bears` attendance would be good the rest of the season.

``Last week`s best crowd (in the league) was 38,000 in Denver,`` he said. ``Over the next several home games, we`ll be able to do better than that.``

It only seemed like flag football: There were 22 penalties flagged in Sunday`s game (18 accepted, 4 declined), but there were 21 penalties accepted in the fourth game of last year, when the Bears beat the Cincinnati Bengals 44-7.

Soldier Field may have been less than half full Sunday, but the Bears still did approximately $1 million in ticket business.

Because only 16,000 people asked to have their money refunded and 2,000 of those tickets were resold, the team still took in the bucks from some 52,000 tickets. At an average of $19 a ticket, the total box office was more than a million dollars.

The big loser was the Chicago Park District, which lost concession and parking revenues from the 33,917 no-shows.

Signs of the times:

The unusual situation prompted some ingenious messages from the bedsheet sloganeers at Soldier Field.